


What Goes Around (Comes Around)

by PastyPirate



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Afterlife, Battle of Hogwarts, Fluff and Angst, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-22
Updated: 2016-01-22
Packaged: 2018-05-15 13:34:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5787112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PastyPirate/pseuds/PastyPirate
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mrs. Weasley had spent years taking care of Harry. It's only fair that Lily takes care of Fred.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What Goes Around (Comes Around)

Fred wasn’t quite sure when he stopped laughing. He had been laughing, Percy had made a joke and he had laughed. He was sure he did. But now he wasn’t laughing. 

No one seemed to be laughing. Curses were being hurled and Percy was clutching his body-

Wait. That wasn’t right. 

Fred looked down and saw that he was definitely looking down at himself. It wasn’t a trick of a light, nor was it George. He was looking down at himself. 

“It’s disorientating at first.” Fred spun around, Harry and Ron rushed through him on their way to Percy’s side, his body’s side. 

There was girl there, only a year or two older than him, standing in the rubble that once was a wall. She had wore a nightgown that fell just below her knees, and a Gryffindor cardigan that looked two decades out of style. She was smiling kindly at him as she stepped over the rubble closer to him. She wore bright yellow socks that weren’t dirtied by the dust. 

“I didn’t-“ he turned back to his brothers and his body. They were trying to get him out of the way. “Am I going to wake up soon?” 

“You’re not daft Fred. You know what happened. If you don’t want to be stuck as the next Hogwarts ghost you need to come to terms with it, and soon. Nearly Headless Nick would love to have you around.” He turned away from the woman, and looked at the tear streaks on his brothers faces as they rushed off, the battle still roaring, and his body hidden out of sight, where death eaters wouldn’t find it.

“I died.” Fred gritted out. The words instantly relieved him and oppressed him. His chest expanded but he suddenly felt the weight of the world on his shoulders. “George-“

“I know it might seem harsh but you really can’t dwell. It’d do no one good if you were stuck as a ghost for the rest of eternity. George will be fine and someday you’ll be together again, but not for many years if you’re lucky.” The woman stepped closer to him and reached out a hand. “Walk with me.”

Fred cautiously took her hand, and she wrapped her arms around his, guiding him towards the Great Hall. 

“I’ve been watching you for sometime. I had hoped I wouldn’t have to meet any of you for years, but there we go.”

“Who are you?” Fred looked down at the lady, her wedding ring glinting in the dull light where her hand rested on his arm. She smiled up at him, a sad kind of worn smile of someone who had died far too young. Her eyes were a vivid green that Fred had seen before, and often. “Mrs. Potter?”

“I’d prefer Lily. I didn’t have time to get used to being called Mrs. Potter before I died. Everyone calls me Lily.” She stepped over another piece of rubble as a curse passed through them. She guided him calmly through the battle as if they were walking along the beach on a summer’s day. 

“What are we doing?” Fred asked, watching as a 6th year hufflepuff sent a slightly impressive spell towards a death eater. 

“When people die in battle, sometimes their spirits linger to protect loved ones until the worst is over. Then we’ll go to the other place. Don’t worry, we can check back often. I once spent an entire month sitting under a stairwell in Surrey because Harry regrew his hair.” Fred felt like there was more to that story. But he didn’t push for more information. It must be a pain to discover that your big sister can’t take care of your child. It’d probably be a weak spot. “Your brothers and sister are all fighting, as well as your parents. You wouldn’t want to leave now. I’m just going to make sure that you don’t become a ghost. You’d hate it as a ghost. You’d never get to reunite with your family unless they all became ghosts. Trust me, it’s awful.” 

 

Fred tried to come up with a joke, a witty one liner, anything. But his mind felt vacant, overwhelmed. They finally came arrived at the great hall, no longer a cavernous wonder but instead a sprawling mess of rubble and flashing lights as hexes fly. There were a few confused spirits walking around, unsure of what they were about. As quickly as they came they seemed to dissolve. 

Two other spirits stood near the edge of the battle, their eyes fixed on it. They had the same vague sort of blurring around the edges, like the sun was just behind them and desperately trying to peak around the edges. One of the forms was as familiar as Lily’s eyes. If he didn’t know better he would’ve sworn that the man in front of him was Harry’s twin. He too was in his pajamas, his glasses hitched high on his nose as he muttered under his breath to the man beside him. Unlike Lily and the man Fred assumed was James, the man next to him was someone Fred recognized from actually knowing. Only he didn’t look like the trapped man he’d known. Instead he looked like he was the same age as Lily and James, wearing jeans and a dragon skin jacket as he spoke back to James. 

“James, Sirius, look who I found wandering around upstairs.” Both men turned in tandem. 

“Oh, no. I was hoping all of the Weasleys would make it through this one.” James said, frowning. Sirius patted James’ shoulder comfortingly. 

“Well, it’s lucky that you found him Lils,” Sirius, nodded with his head towards the fray, “the Weasley twins are not easily separated. “

Fred followed his head gesture and saw George, curses flinging in all directions with his back to Bill’s. He stepped towards him, but Lily still had his arm. 

“We can’t- if you go now you’ll be stuck here forever.” Lily reminded him, before rubbing his arm reassuringly, just like his mother used to do. Fred watched helplessly as George started dueling with a death eater. Did George even know if he was dead? 

“In a few hours you’ll be out of the danger zone and you can go bother your family all you like. As it is, I almost haunted Padfoot’s motorcycle when I died because I was so desperate to stay with Harry.” James said gesturing towards Sirius. 

Fred’s head snapped in their direction, and he could all but feel his jaw drop. “Padfoot?”

Sirius grinned, “Yes?”

“No!” If they were trying to distract him from the battle they were doing a good job. 

“Yes! Moony told me not to tell you. He said Harry got our map from you.” 

“Did Harry know-“

“That his dear old dad was Prongs?” James said, grinning, “Of course he did. Moony told him.”

“Moony as in-“

“Remus Lupin, werewolf extraordinaire.”

“Before or after we gave him the map?” 

“After, way after. How did you not see Peter Pettigrew staying in your little brother’s bed?” Sirius asked, “Not to-“ Sirius cut off with a swear, and they all turned around. 

Nymphadora Tonks’ spirit stood over her still body, frowning down at it as if she was confused. Sirius moved around James to go to her, stepping over bodies as he did so. 

“And she just had a baby.” Lily shook her head sadly, watching as Sirius brought her over to where they stood in the shadows. James had come up on Fred’s other side. 

There was a loud bang, Fred’s eyes shot to the other side of the great hall, where Lupin was falling backwards as his spirit stayed upright. 

James didn’t waste a second heading over to Lupin’s side, Sirius and Tonks detoured, following James towards him. 

“This is not going well.” Lily said, but Fred was doing his best to keep his mind off of the fight. 

“You guys are the freaking Marauders and Harry never told me?” Fred turned to see George, doubled over and doing his best to take in a breath as all the death eaters had suddenly disappeared. “I have to tell George.” 

Again, Lily grabbed his arm, keeping him from going over to him. “Not yet.”

Fred’s eyes flitted to where Remus and Tonks were reuniting, with Sirius and James waiting their turn nearby. 

“How long-“ Fred turned to Lily, frowning as he took in how young she was, “how are you not ghosts?”

It was a sudden moment of clarity, that James and Lily had probably been haunting Harry for years. That poor kid’s struggles had a consistent and unwanted friend. Fred had seen how Harry looked at his mom, how much Harry loved the hugs his mother gave him. If there was anyone who deserved parents, it’d been harry. Fred had done his best not to think of Harry as the poor orphan boy who spent as much time as possible at his family’s table. It was much easier to think of Harry as Ron’s best friend, but whenever Fred looked at Harry, he could see the 11 year old on the platform, clothes hanging off of him like he was hanger, a pile of skin and bones starved for love and affection. The whole time, his parents had been hovering over him. 

“You just got to remember,” Lily threaded her fingers through Fred’s, a reassuring grip to keep him grounded, “eyes on the prize, it’s better to someday be reunited with them, then to never see them again.”

Fred shifted, and saw Percy and Ginny walking up to George. But George was still bent over, struggling to breath, and Fred realized he already knew. George didn’t need to see the unwieldy body that had once held Fred. The gasping breaths turned into broken sobs as George sank into the floor. In moments, Fred’s whole family were crowded around George and Fred’s body. The whole hall was a bustle of people shifting bodies and trying to figure out what was going on. Colin Creevy had joined the marauders and Tonks, and dimly Fred realized that Colin had thought James was Harry. 

George was crying into Fred’s shoulder, and Fred could count the number of times he and George had cried. He could see, even across the great hall, something breaking in George, something he couldn’t fix. 

A tear slipped down his cheek, the reassuring clench of Lily’s hand on his kept him from going to George. 

“It’s better to be reunited.” Fred repeated, “and we will be. Someday.”

**Author's Note:**

> ngl I kinda cried writing this, and then abandoned it for a long time. I think I meant to write more, but it felt forced so I ended it here.


End file.
